Release Stress & Anxiety in Minutes with the Squeeze Method
Here you’ll discover a valuable tool that allows you to release stress and anxiety in just minutes: the squeeze method.
But first, let’s understand a bit more about how the mind works.
Your conscious mind is there to keep you safe. It has two major jobs: TO PLAN & PROTECT. Therefore, 80% of thoughts are negative. This is how your mind plans and protects. “I don’t know if you should do that. That might be dangerous. You could lose everything. What if something bad happens?!”
But guess what?
99% of these thoughts and worries NEVER COME TRUE!
That’s right! So for more ease in your life, you’ve got to put the mind in its place. Your lungs are breathing, your heart is beating, your digestive system is digesting, and your mind is planning and protecting. To assist the mind in letting go a bit, let’s help it out by identifying what threw you out of alignment and over the edge. Was it something someone did or said? Something you said or did? Something going on in the world that you heard about? This practice starts to clue you in on what your trigger point was. Once it comes to your awareness, and you figure out what caused you to react, then you can better manage it and decide what you want to do with it. You can run “it” rather than “it” running you.
[Note: If you are having difficulty figuring out what your trigger was, the practice of SELF MUSCLE TESTING is fairly easy to learn with this book and is amazing for figuring out things like this! You can guess, and your body’s muscle test response will pinpoint the cause.]
Now you can decide to ruminate about it over and over and feel like crap all day, or you can practice this technique to transform it. This method takes you out of your mind and into your body so that you can create a shift directly at the epicenter where it is felt. You can make a change right there.
THE SQUEEZE METHOD
To begin, sit down and close your eyes.
Notice where in your body you feel this stress/anxiety.
Is it felt in your chest, your shoulders, your head, your neck, your stomach, your fists?
Now notice what it feels like.
For example, my chest feels tight or my heart is pounding, my shoulders feel hunched up by my ears, my fists are clenched, my stomach feels like it’s in a knot.
This is where the flow of energy is disrupted in your body. You’ve got to speak the language of your body to let it know you have received it’s warning bell or signal so that it can release.
And now, THE SQUEEZE PROCESS
Tell your body you received the signal, by slowly and incrementally intensifying sensations around the spot by squeezing it – with LOVE.
So if your stomach is in knots, slowly begin to squeeze your stomach. If your shoulders are tight, slowly and gently lift them up even higher and hug them tighter. If your fists are clenched, slowly squeeze them even more. If your heart aches, slowly squeeze the muscle around your heart, your chest, even behind the heart. Hold it and squeeze it for a bit. Long enough to tell this part of your body that you hear it, you are listening, and you are taking the time to acknowledge what is going on internally. (This makes the unconscious, conscious!) Then slowly, incrementally release the squeeze, little by little.
This process lets your body know that you listened. You felt it. You heard what it was trying to tell you. You give it a slow, incremental squeeze (with love), like a bear hug, and then you slowly release it.
REPEAT IF NEEDED
Now notice if there are any other sensations within your body that require acknowledgment, and repeat the squeeze process until your whole body feels relaxed.
Three more steps to go! Use the acronym A.F.A. to help you remember.
ASK
FORGIVE
ACTION
- ASK yourself, “Is there anything I need to hear, see, or know from the experience that triggered me?”
- FORGIVE yourself and everyone else involved. “I forgive myself, and I forgive____________.” If not for some deeper transcendent purpose, then at least do it for yourself – so that you don’t have to lug the heaviness of resentment around with you.
- ACTION. Check to see if there is any aligned action that you feel called to take. If there is, then do it!
That’s it!
So in a nutshell, you forgive your mind for doing its job to protect you. You identify what you’re feeling stressed or anxious about. You take the conversation directly to the body so that you can transform it there. You squeeze the area slowly and incrementally, with love, to let it know you have listened and heard. The signal can release. It’s like turning the alarm off (because you are addressing the issue). See if there’s anything that you need to understand or if there is any action you feel called to take. And forgive yourself and others so that you aren’t carrying around gunked up emotions.
Try it out. Practice it. And let me know how this technique works for you!
Share with others you know who need to learn how to release stress and anxiety too!
